Of Stories, Beaches, and Fieldtrips
by MissLe
Summary: So the mermaid, distraught and anguished, looked up at the prince to whisper, “How would you like to die with me?” GaaHina.


Once upon a time there was a castle.

The castle stood tall and proud on a warm, sandy beach that was constantly being warmed by sun or cooled by gentle breezes of the ocean breeze. One could go as far as to say it was a paradise. However, the castle was situated on a lonely peninsula in which no one ventured for fear of being cursed by the witch who lived in the nearby forest, meaning the prince of the castle was left alone to his very lonely devices for many, many years.

The prince, although he stopped pining for the contact of humans instead of the sea creatures he was so familiar with years ago, still nonetheless _required_ human contact, for without which, he would surely become insane. So, he compromised with himself. He would find a wife who was both a child of the sea and land, he would seduce her and once fallen for him, he would never let her leave his castle.

Very soon, he found a mermaid who perched herself on a rock along his beach every day, stroking her hair and singing as she stared off at the sea with troubled expressions. When he first found her, she had been a terrified and meek little thing who insisted that she must return to her underwater home. However, the prince could be very charming and soon after a few visits, he managed to gain her trust and comfort.

The mermaid was still a shy thing who blushed at any compliment the prince gave her and denied any reason for them to be true. This constantly confused the prince because the compliments he gave her weren't lies and each one he gave was true; she _was_ very beautiful, her voice was _very_ soothing, and when she sang he was _sure_ that the ocean would calm itself and listen to her.

It did not take long for the prince to begin falling for the mermaid in his twisted plan to make _her_ love _him_. But he never planned to tell her. It would only serve to make him look weak. His desire to make her his wife only grew stronger now when finally, when he was sure that she was sufficiently in love with him, he asked her to marry him.

He had not been expecting her to burst into tears at his proposal.

Nor had he been expecting her to dive back into the ocean.

He also had not been expecting her to return several weeks later on the same rock.

Her eyes were still pearly with tears as she held his face in her hands and whispered to him, "I am already wedded to another. I do not love him, but he is good to me and I cannot break his trust with the love I have for you."

He closed his eyes and leaned against her calming touch that smoothed back his unruly hair. "I...see. Will you return to him?"

She gave a small smile and retracted her hands, only to have them recaptured by the prince's larger ones. Slowly, she shook her head. "No. It would be too torturous and unfair for the both of us if I return." She looked up at him and whispered, "How would you like to die with me?"

The prince mulled over this for a moment as he turned her soft hand over in his. He looked at her and smiled finally. "I would very much like that."

So the two sat on the rock and called towards to ocean, asking for her to take both of them.

--

"...and the ocean, moved by their devotion towards each other and the mermaid's singing, took the two and for them cried many tears, filling her own waters with salt." The tour guide finished her story and motioned to the grand mural painted on one of the walls.

"That was...the most _romantic_ story I have ever heard." Ino gushed and leaned against Sakura in a semi-swoon.

"I know. It's like...The Little Mermaid mixed with Romeo and Juliet!" Sakura clasped her hands together and smiled wistfully. "I wish that _someone_ showed that much devotion to me, eh, Hinata?" She glared at Neji who was adamantly avoiding her gaze.

"Hm," Hinata smiled back. "I suppose."

"Where's the moral in _that_ story? 'Dying is better than cheating?'" Naruto wrinkled his nose petulantly. "I mean, stories like that _are_ supposed to have morals, right?"

"You idiot." Sasuke smacked his head and crossed his arms. "That wasn't supposed to be a story about morals. It was one of those explanatory ones. It was a myth to explain the salt in the ocean."

Naruto merely grumbled and rubbed his head. "Whatever."

"Now, let's continue the tour, shall we?" The sweet voiced tour guide asked and beckoned for the class to follow her.

"You heard the lady, c'mon." Kakashi ushered his class after the tour guide as he kept an eye on her round bottom. "We've got more stuff to...see." He followed the majority in behind the tour guide and barged through the crowd of students to get ahead and chat up the pretty and young tour guide, smacking heads as he saw fit.

"Are...are you coming, Gaara?" Hinata asked quietly as she waited for the silent boy to follow. She wasn't very surprised when Kakashi hadn't noticed her staying behind; she was very much the definition of a wallflower.

He glanced over at as she walked to stand next to him to stare at the mural. "Hn."

"Did you like the story?" She asked and reached out to gently run her fingers over the picture of the mermaid caressing the prince's face that was contorted in anguish. She brushed her fingers along his painted brow as if to smooth it before letting her hand drop to her side.

"I really have no opinion on it." He frowned at the mural and tilted his head.

"None at all?" She looked at him with a frown and pursed her lips. "You can't _not_ have an opinion on it; it was either boring, romantic, or sad." She glanced back at the castle hallway that their class disappeared down. "Why did you decide to stay here if you weren't interested in it?"

"This wall...there's a crack..." He reached out and stuck his fingers in the barely seen crack that was held between the crease of the two lovers' held hands. Eyes widening, he jerked his hand out and stared at the crack with kneaded eyebrows.

"What happened? A-are you okay?" Hinata stretched her arm out to grasp his before he glared down at her momentarily, causing a blush to cross her face that turned down to the ground suddenly. "S-sorry." She whispered.

"There's a latch." He looked around the wall for a plaque or sign indicating what it may have been. When he noticed nothing, he held his arm out in front of her. "Stand back."

"Why? You're n-not actually going to open it are you?" She gasped and stared at the wall incredulously. "This is illegal, isn't it?"

He gave her an annoyed glance before putting his hand into the crack and pulled. Hinata held her breath for a moment as nothing happened and desperately looked around for security cameras, security _guards_, and perhaps any other possible witnesses. Suddenly, a groan of unused metal and stone sounded as the painted rock the mermaid sat on pushed back into the wall, revealing a tunnel just large enough to walk while crouching your head in a painful manner.

Gaara stepped forward and into the tunnel before turning around briefly to look at her. "You coming?"

"You're _going_?" She gasped and spluttered for a moment as she stared at the dark tunnel fearfully. "How will you see?" She whispered quietly.

He brought out his cell phone and shone the light into the tunnel. "Are you going to come?"

Giving the hallway in which the class disappeared down a longing glance, she turned to the red haired boy and nodded before following his lead. The tunnel twisted here and there occasionally, but that was the most that Hinata could tell from it. Mainly all she could see was Gaara's crouched back and the blue glow contrast against his flaming red hair.

There was a thump as Gaara and her only source of light disappeared from view. Panicking, she reached out to find nothing in her grip except air. "Gaara?" She hissed, terrified of what may have happened.

"Watch your—"

Hinata tumbled down a hole in the floor, shielding her arms from the impact, only to land on the fleshy firmness of her classmate who happened to be the unfortunate landing pad of her unfortunate fall. She relaxed and let out a groan of relief, letting her head fall to hit whatever dirt may have been beneath her and Gaara.

Except, dirt wasn't supposed to rise or fall, or be warm, _or_ smell distinctly like cologne. Hinata went rigid as the full implications of where she was, who she was on, and how inappropriate the position the two of them were currently in sink in. She could feel his breath blow gently against her ear, could feel the steady pound of pulse beside her ear, and could feel his hands that were against her hips to prevent her from crushing him too much from her fall warm against her exposed skin.

"Are you okay?" He asked, his throat vibrating against her cheek that had delved itself into the crook of his neck on accident.

"Y-yes." She breathed, her eyes wide as she sat up on her elbows, prepared to get up fully and _forget_ what had just happened. "Are you?"

"Yes. Now get off." He glared at the rock ceiling that held the hole the both of them fell down and added as an afterthought, "Please."

Blushing, she nodded and quickly climbed off of him, brushing the sand off of herself. She waited for him to stand and do the same thing before asking, "Where are we?"

Gaara picked up his cell phone off the floor and shone it around the dark atmosphere. It seemed to be a cave of sorts in which a small lake or large pond was centred within, the water trickled out (or in) of the cave from a small creek that led out of a small tunnel emitting faint light.

"We go out there." He pointed at the thin ledge beside the creek. "It'll lead us outside."

"Are you s-sure?" Hinata asked quietly.

He nodded before heading down. "I can smell the ocean."

They followed the ledge carefully before the light grew and the both of them were standing on soft sand, facing an incredibly blue ocean.

Hinata gave a small smile and murmured. "I always did love this beach."

"We're fairly far from the castle." Gaara commented and looked back at the castle a bit of a distance away on the other side of the beach. "Maybe we should head back."

"What?" She finally tore her gaze away from the ocean and pouted. "If you wanted to head back so quick, why did you bother opening that wall and coming, a-anyways?"

"Curiosity."

"Well, let's stay, just for a bit, please?" She smiled at the beach and kicked off her shoes delicately. "I really doubt that they've noticed that we're missing. And this is infinitely better th-than a stuffy dark castle, isn't it?" Trotting up to the water, she put her feet in and wriggled her toes in the wet sand.

Gaara blinked before slowly lowering himself to sit down on the white sand. "What do you suppose this place is?"

"I'm not—" Hinata suddenly tread deeper into the water until she was past her knees and threatening to get her shorts wet. The rock standing in the water was tall, tall enough for her to sit on and be marginally taller than Gaara, yet oddly enough barely covered in barnacles. Determinedly, she cast aside the apprehension of getting her clothes wet and began to climb up the rock to sit upon it.

"Hn. Perhaps there are some truths to stories."

Hinata glanced down at Gaara who was now standing in the water beside the rock she managed to sit on and watched as he brushed his long fingers against it. Noticing her staring, he looked back up with an intense gaze that always managed to make her shift uncomfortably.

Unable to stop herself, Hinata blurted out, "We used to t-talk a lot. Or...at least a lot f-for people like us." She murmured the last part quietly and swung her dangling feet.

"Yes." He murmured. "We did." He stare was unwavering as he said this still.

"What changed?" She asked back softly and drew patterns into the stone with her finger.

He shrugged and scratched his forehead, effectively breaking their gaze. "Nothing. Maybe something. I'm not sure."

"Did you ever get that tattoo?" Hinata asked and brushed the vibrant hair from his forehead. "I remember trying to convince you when we were thirteen not to g-get it on your forehead like you wanted."

"Yes." He closed his eyes and let her fingers wander around his forehead, fussing with his hair, pressing back the creases from his eyebrows.

"Where is it then?"

He reached up to the collar of his shirt to pull it back, revealing the black inked tattoo right above his collar bone against the side of his neck. Hinata reached out hesitantly to touch it lightly with warm fingers. "Did it hurt?"

"...Yes." He reached out to grab her wrist to examine the underside of it. When he found nothing that he was looking for, he placed it back against his neck.

"What'd it feel like?" The tattoo was still somewhat 3-D looking still, which meant that it was fairly new. Which meant it was probably painful for her to be touching it. Jerking her hand away, she placed it in her lap and watched as his eyebrow rose at her.

"Like a vibrating needle being jabbed into my skin for a seemingly longer period of time than it actually was."

Hinata laughed softly. "Of course. Silly me." She glanced back at the castle and gave a small sigh. "Perhaps we should head back, shouldn't we?"

"Hn." He nodded and watched her look down at the water uncomfortably. Getting up was always so much easier than getting down. Reaching up with one hand, he flicked his wrist impatiently. "Do you need help?"

She nodded meekly and took his hand, only to have it pulled out her grasp to be placed on one hip like the other one was. "Ready?" He asked and tightened his firm grip marginally.

"Y-yes." She whispered and squirmed off the rock edge, ready for the fall that was softened by Gaara's unyielding grip. "Let's go back."

She had almost reached the shoreline before Gaara gripped her wrist and lightly yanked her back to face him. He shifted uncomfortably before saying, "I mess things up. A lot of things. Friendships...relationships of any sort." He gripped his head in frustration as he attempted to get the words out. "I...didn't want to make a mess of ours."

Hinata blinked before slipping her hand out of his grip and holding his hand between the both of hers as she examined them. "I'm..." She glanced up at him with a small smile and a blush. "I'm p-pretty good at cleaning mess u-up though."

It was his turn to blink as he gave a small upturn of his lip before walking towards the dry beach where there shoes were, followed by Hinata who was anxiously waiting for a reply.

"That's good." He finally said and waited for her as she picked up her shoes to carry, a large grin on her face.

**Uh...actually the SIXTH Dateme contest entry. Totally thought that it'd be more.**

**Gooooo figure.**

**Ciao,  
****MissLe**


End file.
